Catalog of War
by hunter 139
Summary: A collection of one shots about events, including battles, conflicts and skrimishes, that occur in the shared multiverse of my stories. I do not own any of the franchises that appear in this series. Multicrossover.
1. Council vs the Flood

**Alright I'm going to make a series of one shots that depicts battles, conflicts or even just random events that occur in the overarching multiverse of my stories, so expect a lot of universes crossing over.**

**If anyone's hoping for another Deadliest Warrior-style fanfiction, I'm sorry to say that you'll be disappointed if you come here expecting fair conflicts. Partially, because I'm biased, but also because it's flat out impossible to truly predict the outcome of any sort of conflict (or anything really).**

**I do not own Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, Metroid, Alien, Predator, Bionicle, Young Justice, Red vs Blue, Killzone, Dead Space, Half-Life, Portal, or Titanfall.**

**First up: how the Great Flood War began.**

* * *

Matriarch A'liet stood in the silver and bronze metal hallway, overseeing the exploration by Council forces. Salarian techs and asari scientists were scouring the rooms for useful data and new technology, while turian and human soldiers accompanied them and stood guard against possible incursions by these "Forerunner Sentinels."

A turian built cruiser with an interdimensional hyperdrive hovered nearby the station, holding position underneath the larger platform above. The almost grappling hook-shaped facility was suspended from the larger station by a massive cable, which shouldn't have been able to support its weight.

This station was an unbelievably advanced piece of technology, and yet according to what little records that had been acquired by STG from a group of Kig-Yar pirates, this place was only a gas mine.

There had been warnings from the Kig-Yar to stay away from this place, and what little information they could gain from ONI indicated this station wasn't exactly innocuous, which was all the more reason for the Council to investigate.

If they recovered any weapons or technology from here, it would drastically change the Citadel's standing in the IDA, and it could even put them on par with the Republic and the Separatists, though A'liet knew the latter two would be decades away at minimum.

Regardless, the Citadel Council had dispatched a quiet mission to this unnamed gas giant in order to gather any useful technology. Though they were technically allies with the UNSC thanks to the governing body of the InterDimensional Alliance (IDA), the Council chose to keep this little expedition quiet at the insistence of the Salarians, who were unused to being left in the dark (intelligence-wise) thanks to ONI and wanted to gain any sort of advantage over the other factions of the multiverse.

Gunfire and screaming interrupted the Matriarch's musings and she called for an update from her omni-tool. A turian face emerged on the video screen.

"Status report. What's happening?"

"We lost contact with the Salarian techs after they opened Section G." The turian replied, "Almost immediately afterwards, these Sentinels started attacking all of us."

A'liet frowned in anger. Section G was the most tightly secured area on the Forerunner gas mine. It had taken three days to break through the door, during which time, the guards and techs were under constant assault by these Sentinel drones.

The initial assumption by the scientists was that Section G held their control room, which meant that getting inside would allow the Council to deactivate the Sentinels and take them for further study. Now though, it seemed that this was not the case, and they would have to fight through these drones or evacuate.

"Send the word to all points. We're evacuating the station." The Matriarch ordered. The turian was about to reply when an unnatural noise permeated through the air, causing the soldiers nearby him to spin towards the position.

"Take them down! Take them-" The link cut out into static, but not before the Matriarch could see the panicked faces on the human soldiers. Turning to her entourage of asari commandos, A'liet told them to follow her and get everyone to the evacuation point.

Following the weapon fire, the asari commandos found a squad of soldiers and scientists locked in a struggle against the Sentinels. Lances of energy burned through flesh, completely ignoring the kinetic barriers they were wearing. The battle wasn't entirely one sided, as a human marine destroyed a Sentinel with a well-placed barrage.

In the center of the group, a male Quarian (one of the only expedition members not part of a Council race) tech was attempting to hack the Sentinels, but it didn't seem to have any effect, and the Quarian was rewarded for his efforts by an energy beam through the chest. A'liet and her commandos rushed to assist when a door on the opposite end of the room burst open.

A swarm of sickly pale, squid-shaped creatures scuttled through opening before they were cut down by the fire of the Sentinels, who were now focusing all their efforts on these new arrivals. A swarm of humanoid shaped creatures also ran through the door, firing weapons at the drones and the defending forces.

With a horrified start, A'liet realized that these sickly green and brown figures were a mix of asari, turian, salarian and human beings. Or they were, before they were twisted by whatever these were. The commandos started unleashing biotic attacks at these monsters as they started pouring in from vents and other chambers, but most of them were overwhelmed.

Regardless, they bought A'liet enough time to get the few survivors out of that area. The Sentinels were too busy with the flood of hostiles to notice their retreat. As they made their way back to the evac point, A'liet struggled not to give in to despair.

She not only lost her sisters, but the Council's expedition had clearly released these monstrosities. A'liet didn't know what they were, but they clearly twisted life to suit their own ends, like the Reapers, except these were even worse.

The few survivors of the expedition made it back to the shuttles, but as soon as they were back on the cruiser, one of the shuttles opened to reveal that some of these parasites had slipped aboard, and soon an all out battle broke through the ship.

A'liet barely noticed, as one of those squid-like forms had latched onto her back and buried its way through her spine. Pain like she had never experienced coursed through her body as it became twisted beyond all recognition. One of her arms became a thin tendril, while her neck was pushed to a broken angle as the infection form forced its way through her chest.

Inside her mind, the Matriarch was met with a disgusting hunger that sickened her to her core. This hunger overcame even the most potent of instincts and emotions, making the Matriarch want to vomit if she still had control of her body.

A'liet mentally struggled against this hunger, to keep it from consuming her essence. Surprisingly, it seemed to work, though she started drifting in and out of consciousness as she was forced to watch herself attack her former crewmates.

As the battle progressed, she realized that these creatures seemed to gain the power of everything they infected, which was horrifying when she watched herself unleash a powerful biotic shockwave that leveled a hallway and killed dozens of soldiers.

It didn't take long before the Flood had taken the ship and started interfacing with the systems. Soon, the former Matriarch was on the bridge, and to her horror, she was added to the mass of a creature that had formed itself around the controls of the ship.

All other concerns were driven from her as she found herself trapped in her own mind with an incessant buzzing noise droned from all around her. Soon, the buzzing intensified as A'liet felt her memories being pulled from her and consumed.

The first time she had left her homeworld, the first life she took as a mercenary, the day she found out she was pregnant, and her happy years raising her daughter to be the best asari she could be. All of these memories were destroyed as the Flood sifted through her mind to find what they were looking for.

It didn't take long for the Flood to rip all the useful knowledge they wanted out of A'liet's mind. As the asari felt herself slipping into the darkness, a rasping baritone voice broke through the silence:

"This is not your grave. But you are welcome in it."

That was the last thing Matriarch A'liet ever heard before the hunger completely consumed her.

* * *

**Well, the Citadel Council have really screwed up this time. The Great Flood War that I mentioned in my other works begins here. And all because the Council allowed an interdimensional transport device to fall into the tentacles of the Flood.**

**Now, to be fair, the UNSC and ONI could have told the rest of the IDA about the existence of the Flood. But that would have opened a whole other can of worms that the Halo factions wouldn't want to deal with (such as the existence of the Halo rings and their purpose), especially with the political sychopants that make up the leadership of the IDA who would end up trying to go there anyway.**

**Besides, the Mass Effect races seem to have the same mindset of the Covenant when it comes to scientific exploration (as in they open every door, while ignoring the warning signs that say "Keep the F**k out!"), so this seems rather fitting.**

**Anyway, this collection will contain little excerpts of conflicts or stories from several different perspectives in the multiverse, so stay tuned for more.**

**Reviews are always welcome.**


	2. Hunter vs Freelancers

**On February 2nd, 2015, the world lost an amazing artist and animator. This next chapter is dedicated to the memory of Monty Oum.**

**It's Samus Aran vs the Meta and Carolina.**

**I do not own Metroid or Red vs. Blue.**

* * *

Samus Aran stalked through the abandoned facility as she searched for her target. The Republic had ordered her here to collect data on Separatist activities in this sector of space, but so far, the facility seemed like it had been abandoned fairly recently.

As she crossed into a cavernous chamber, her radar picked up motion around her, but she couldn't see anything. Scanning the room with her thermal visor, it came up empty, but as she started to move again, half a dozen explosions went off around her, sending Samus' armored form flying into the wall before tumbling face-first into the ground.

Recovering quickly, Samus rose to her feet and targeted the source of the attack against her, currently shimmering into view in the middle of the room. The man was 6 feet tall, dressed in white and brown trim Spartan armor, with a gold EVA helmet staring back at her. He was currently feeding a belt of ammo into his brute shot, and the energy writhing around his body was consistent with fully charged overshields.

"The Meta." Samus thought.

The two killing machines had nothing to say to each other, merely choosing to target the other with their weapon. For a long moment, neither of them moved, and then the Separatist agent opened fire first, sending several explosive rounds barreling towards Samus' helmet. Diving to the right, Samus unloaded a barrage of power beam blasts at the Meta, who rolled out of the way, before rising to his feet. Searching for the Republic agent, Meta managed to reacquire his target just in time to intercept a missile straight to the chest.

Blasted across the room, the Meta stood up and activated his cloaking device, causing Samus to lose track of the snarling monster. Activating her X-ray visor, she had just enough time to see the Meta's skeleton charge at her, brute shot blade swinging into her midsection. Losing some of her suit energy, Samus was forced on the defensive, ducking and side-stepping the Meta's brutal lunges with his blade.

Bringing her left fist into his stomach and then up in an uppercut to the Meta's chin, Samus avoided his sloppy retaliation lunge by activating her morph ball. Struggling to regain his balance after missing the ex-bounty hunter, Meta found himself within a triangle of glowing orbs, which detonated one by one, sending him into a pillar.

Switching to her electric wave beam, Samus fired on the Meta's rising form, as each blast drained his overshield and started overloading his armor's systems. If this barrage continued, the Meta would be incapitated in a moment. But continue, it would not.

A high caliber bullet impacted Samus' arm cannon, causing minor energy loss to her suit, but more importantly, causing her to go off target and sending the charged wave beam shot into a wall. She barely had time to register what had happened as an aqua colored blur slammed into her, sending her flying a short distance. Turning her momentum into a backflip, Samus landed on her hands, somersaulted to her feet and saw a female figure in aqua-colored Spartan armor.

"Agent Carolina." Samus grimaced, realizing if the Meta was here, Carolina wouldn't be far behind.

Carolina unleashed a flurry of blows at the armor-clad bounty hunter, who couldn't bring her arm cannon to bear at that close range, and was forced to retaliate with her own hand to hand combat style. After blocking and countering Samus' blows, Carolina abruptly cartwheeled away just as Samus was hit by several explosive rounds. The Meta had recovered and the two ex-Freelancers worked in tandem to combat the ex-bounty hunter.

Carolina would knock her off balance, using a combination of speed and CQC, while the Meta would bombard her from a distance with brute shot rounds and thrown objects. As Samus' energy reserves ran down, she knew that she would have to turn this around quickly or the two Separatist agents could end up killing her.

Dodging another hail of explosive fire, Samus fired her grappling beam at a charging Carolina. The ex-Freelancer barely had time to register what happened before she was lifted off her feet and hurled into Agent Maine, sending the two agents sprawling. The white-armored giant recovered just in time to activate his bubble shield to stop Samus' incoming missile. That turned out to be to Samus' advantage as a cocoon of ice spread all over the energy dome, sealing the Meta inside.

Turning her attention to Carolina, Samus sidestepped the aqua-colored agent as she charged past her, then kicked her in the face when Carolina reversed direction and missed again. She went flying, knocked out cold, as Samus turned her attention to the sounds coming from the ice cocoon. The Meta broke through the top of the dome as he leapt high in the air, showering Samus' position with brute shot fire.

The ex-bounty hunter retaliated with a super missile, which the Meta batted away with his brute shot. This proved to be a distraction as the Meta realized that a pinwheel of electric energy was headed right for him. Samus slammed into the Meta, sending him to the other side of the room, sparks flying off his armor. Frankly, it was a testament to the Separatist enhancements made to his suit that the Meta managed to survive colliding with Samus' Screw Attack.

As Samus strolled towards the recovering ex-Freelancer, a grenade landed right in front of her, emitting a massive flash of light and smoke. Samus heard Carolina shout, "Maine, we're leaving!" before the Meta rushed past Samus, slamming into her and sprinting into the newly created portal in the middle of the room. Carolina followed, dodging Samus' incoming plasma beam shots before they disappeared and the vortex vanished.

All around her, the ceiling started collapsing as Samus realized the two ex-Freelancers had been sent to stop her from halting the last of the Separatists evacuating from this base. Activating her speed booster, Samus quickly ran through the self-destructing complex, and escaped into the exterior in time to witness the structure collapsing behind her and the streaking of Separatist dropships as they exited the planet's atmosphere.

Exhausted, Samus returned to her ship, and sent a report to the Republic Supreme Commander detailing the events that happened here before taking off into space.

* * *

**Honestly, this has been kicking around in my head for quite some time now, and I've been working on it for a while. I took inspiration from Monty Oum's work on Red vs. Blue and Haloid, and tried to capture the style of fighting used in both works.**

**If Monty could have read this, I can only hope that he would have approved. You will be missed.**


	3. Republic vs Everyone

**This story is also a songfic with the The Scar by Broken Iris (I do not own this song).**

**I also do not own Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, Metroid, Alien, Predator, Bionicle, Young Justice, Red vs Blue, Killzone, Dead Space, Half-Life, Portal, or Titanfall.**

* * *

_*Lyrics are italicized.*_

War. It has always existed, no matter the universe, no matter the species, no matter the reason. Even if a conflict starts small, they have a tendency to drag everyone else into it. Such was happening now; the IDA factions had deployed armies of mercenaries and private military contractors to a planet to take control of it.

Recently, it had become known that this world had a minor strategic value due to its deposits of uncommon minerals. None of the governments really wanted to waste the effort to claim this planet due to its proximity to the uncharted sectors of the IDA, but they didn't want anyone else to get it either.

Sire walked through one of the desolate towns of this world, looking at the civilian corpses scattered through the streets. The female Mirialan was repulsed by the carnage caused by this pointless and bloody shadow war.

_Illiteracy,_  
_For those who can't see,_  
_The gates that untie avid arrogance._  
_Your ground felt so firm,_  
_I short handed myself._  
_Never again,_  
_Will I give in._

Officially, none of the factions had any of their forces in the region. Unofficially, these "mercs" were being backed covertly by their respective governments. Agent Sire of the Republic had been assigned to oversee the conflict and determine what should be done.

A loud rumbling in the sky drew her attention to another transport streaking through the atmosphere, no doubt containing more soldiers ready to fight and die on the behalf of their corrupt masters. Sire sprinted in the direction of the transport, following the echoes of gunfire.

_Right into hate,_  
_Right into lies._  
_Right back where we've been before,_  
_A privilage no more._  
_Now that we've lost-_

In the ruins of a run down city, UNSC and Sangheili forces were preparing to combat a force composed of Citadel races. Asari commandos, Turian soldiers, STG operatives, and N7 forces prepared to mount a counter attack. Sire knew the commander of the Council forces was an Asari Spectre, proving that the Council was lying about this being an unaffiliated force.

If anyone else found out about this, it could end up being an interdimensional war.

A human sniper dressed as an Insurrectionist drew the first blood, blasting a turian's head off. All hell broke loose as mass accelerators, railgun rounds and plasma bolts split through the air.

_The scar,_  
_Buried within man-kind._  
_The will that defines all of right from wrong,_  
_Now fight,_  
_Unless you're willing to die._  
_Only the obvious state this._

A Warthog drove through the run down streets, the gunner showering Council fortifications with LAAG bullets. As several Salarians and N7 marines fell, an ML-77 missile impacted the front of the Warthog, causing it to flip over. The surviving gunner was pulverized when an asari commando biotically charged at him. This proved to be a grave mistake, as a particle beam fired by a Sangheili sniper, sliced through the commando's head, cutting her face in half.

The Republic soldier had seen enough. Activating her cloaking device, Sire left that battleground to go and observe the forces fighting in another region of the planet.

Galactic Alliance and Galactic Federation backed soldiers were fighting in some ancient desert ruins. Unlike the UNSC, Sangheili and Council forces, who were at least using second hand armor and weapons (which would make the idea that they were unaffiliated mercenaries seem more plausible), the forces here had state-of-the-art technology and weapons backing them up.

_Struck with the punishment,_  
_That would last for an age._  
_Finally,_  
_It's all black and white._  
_Much more simple to answer._

Bolts of energy lanced between the two sides, striking soldiers down. An IFT-T Saber tank hovered over the battlefield, striking at the Federation Marines, who retreated behind cover while GA forces and mercs slowly advanced on them.

Popping up from behind cover, a Marine let loose with several beams from his arm cannon, felling several soldiers. A hail of blasterfire responded in kind, one lucky bolt catching the arm cannon and slagging it. Concentrated fire from the Saber's beam turret vaporized him and several Demolition troopers.

_Heroes will rise,_  
_Enemies fall._  
_Right back where they've been before,_  
_A privilaged regained._  
_A gift that you own._

A Federation missile trooper unleashed a salvo from his arm cannon, pulverizing the fighter tank. The GA soldiers retaliated with another hail of blasterfire, which pierced through Marine armor, forcing them to fall back.

Alliance forces pushed forward, angered by the loss of their tank and emboldened by the retreat of the Marines. Meanwhile Sire stood on a nearby dune overlooking the battlefield, watching events unfold.

In an effort to halt the tide, GF demolition troopers set off their traps in the ruins, crushing dozens of soldiers and leaving the rest to suffocate. There was no attempt to rescue the wounded of either side, and they were shot instead, obstensibly as a mercy killing.

_The scar,_  
_Buried within man-kind._  
_The will that defines all of right from wrong,_  
_Now fight,_  
_Unless you're willing to die._  
_Only the obvious state this._

Sire had seen enough. Turning to her vehicle, she mounted the hover bike and left the area. Passing through another battlefield in a lush canyon, the Mirialan saw Galactic Alliance and Citadel forces fighting each other, with a Jedi Knight caught in the middle.

Presumably, the Jedi had come here to settle these differences, but as Sire watched him get gunned down, she knew the Jedi's attempts had been for nought. Neither side was listening to the peacekeepers and had marked them hostile on sight. This was getting out of control. She left that battlefield and made it to the abandoned concrete bunker that served as the Republic outpost on the planet.

Sire knew what their orders would be; High Command had already cleared it. That didn't mean she was happy about and from what she knew and what she saw, no one in the Republic wanted this, including the people who ordered it. But it had to be done. Besides, if they didn't do it, the Separatists would.

A blitzkrieg assault by Republic troops would halt the entire conflict in its tracks, before things could escalate any further. Gunships, tanks, and walkers would provide armor and air support, to hasten the end.

And Sire would be leading the counterattack.

_Pay no more mind,_  
_To the agony from the burn._  
_Let yourself cimb,_  
_To a height never reached before._  
_Open to find,_  
_A path to the pure inside._  
_Now is the time._

The Republic forces gathered their hardware for the assault. This conflict would end today, before it could become an intergalactic civil war. Gathering in the city, Republic forces looked over the battlefield, marking positions and targets before they made their move.

The Yautja struck first, as bolts of plasma took several turian snipers out of the battle, while another group snuck behind the Sangheili forces and engaged them in hand to hand combat. As the mercenary forces reeled from this blow, the rest of the Republic forces launched a full assault, vaporizing bodies before they had a chance to react.

Several mercs fought back, only to have their visions blocked out by the "Angels of Death." The famous Republic forces, that deployed from orbital drop pods. Unlike most orbital insertion strike teams, the pods of the Angels broke apart in atmosphere, allowing them to glide out using built in jets and hard light wings.

Taking their inspiration from Batman's glider cape, the "Angels" also used their unique equipment to counter airborne Separatist troops (such as Helghast jet troopers and Space Pirate aerotroopers), or serve as air support. A service which they used here, as enemy soldiers soon found out the hard way.

A salarian was lining up shots from his sniper, only to smashed against the wall of the building when an Angel flew at him and hit him with a double kick. The light wings disappeared as the Angel's legs touched the ground, and he killed the salarian who was pointing his gun at him.

A Phrygisian flew in on an ice slide and froze dozens of mercs in their tracks, allowing Republic forces to pick them off. Sire personally killed the Asari Spectre before she had a chance to react. Looking around, it was clear that the battle was over.

PMC corpses littered the battlefront, as Republic tanks and walkers made their way through the city towards the desert, to join the assault against the GA and GF forces fighting in the ruins.

_The scar,_  
_(The scar.)_  
_Buried within man-kind._  
_The will that defines all of right from wrong,_  
_Now fight,_  
_Unless you're willing to die._  
_Only the obvious state;_

The assault on the ruins had already begun. Screaming through the desert, several dropships unloaded volleys of missiles at the battle below, vaporizing dozens of soldiers in seconds. Sire was on the ground and directed the artillery fire on the GA and GF positions. The resulting energy rounds vaporized fortifications and reduced any remaining GA ground vehicles to scrap metal. Energy/railgun rounds tore through the air, obliterating armor and flesh.

In a desperate attempt to survive, the enemy soldiers banded together in a hopeless attempt to stave off their fate. Energy bolts flew through the air as the panicking soldiers were annihilated by the professional Republic troops.

The surivors of all sides fell back and banded together in a nearby village. Bullets and energy blasts streaked towards the oncoming Republic forces, but they might as well have been throwing stones at tanks.

_The scar,_  
_(The scar.)_  
_Buried within man-kind._  
_The will that defines all of right from wrong,_  
_Now fight,_  
_Unless you're willing to die._  
_Only the obvious state;_  
_The scar_  
_The scar._  
_The scar._  
_The scar._

In less than 10 minutes, it was all over. Sire looked over the carnage of the village she had visited earlier, observing the corpses of the fallen mercs beside the civilians they had killed. Republic soldiers ran past her as they went to hunt down any surviving mercenaries.

A loud rumbling drew Sire's attention to the sky, where another transport was on the way down. It seemed there was more work to do.

* * *

**I hope everyone enjoyed this one-shot. Let me know in a review if you liked the songfic or not, and if you do, let me know if you have any requests for more songs.**

**For more information about these factions and their history, please read my "Codex of the Multiverse."**


	4. Predator vs Elite

**I guess I should call this collection: "Random one-shot ideas I had for crossovers, so I might as well put them somewhere for lack of anything better to do with them." But seriously, if it wasn't obvious before, this 'story' is basically somewhere to put ideas for events that took place in my shared multiverse.**

**Regardless, I hope everyone has been enjoying them. Next up, Predators vs. Spec Ops Elites.**

* * *

Mek 'Zanam led his lance through the dense jungle, searching for the human crash site, and more importantly, the Forerunner artifact contained within. During the battle on this planet, a human squad had succeeded in capturing an important artifact and the Commander wanted it back.

Initially, the humans had been able to escape on a Pelican dropship, but the craft had been shot down before it could escape into space. Weirdly, no Covenant forces were in the area where the Pelican had been hit, so the shooter's identity was still a mystery.

'It seems the gods have favoured us this day.' Mek thought as he and his Spec Ops lance made their way toward crash site. Two other lances were also converging on the impact site, more than enough to slaughter the crew and recover the relic. Mek didn't know why the artifact was so vital, but he would follow the orders he was given.

They were half a kilometer from the crash site when the sounds of plasma fire tore through the air, mixed with an unpleasantly familiar noise; gunfire, or more accurately, human gunfire. It seemed a UNSC rescue party was already moving to the crash site and had engaged one of the Spec Ops lances.

"Swift Blade, what's your status?" Mek called the team over the battlenet, and a voice rang through the din.

"The Demons are here! Make haste brothers! They must not reach the arti-" The voice was cut off by gunfire before the link went dead.

Mek's hearts thundered in his chest when he realized the humans had sent their 'Spartans' to recover the relic. While he wished to test his mettle against these demons, Mek 'Zanam was no fool, and he knew that the two remaining lances would be needed to ensure their destruction.

Just as he was about to call the Silent Strike lance, plasma fire broke the silence again. Unlike the first time though, there were no staccato bursts of gunfire, which had been replaced with a more chilling sound: Sangheili screams of terror.

Mek froze, then tried to contact Silent Strike, but received no reply. The Spec Ops team scanned their position, listening for any signs of movement. The only noise now was the sound of wind rustling, the ambient noise of distant battle... and a distinct clicking noise coming from somewhere around them.

After a moment of listening, the four Sangheili dismissed it as the sound of a bird and resumed their trek towards the crash site, only for them to stumble into a cloaked mine, which disabled their weapons and shields.

Before the Elites had time to react, two plasma bolts, fired in quick succession, blew a hole through one of the Sangheili and decapitated the other one. As Mek and his remaining ally span toward the direction of the shooter, a cloaked figure leapt down in front of them.

Mek's ally threw restraint to the wind and rushed the attacker, who leapt over the charging Elite and landed on his back, causing him to tumble to the ground. A pair of blades emerged from the being's wrist and plunged into the Sangheili's head, ending his life.

At that moment, Mek's shields and weapons reactivated, and he unleashed a burst of plasma fire at the invisible being. Growling in pain, the figure spun around and hurled a razor sharp disc at Mek, cutting his plasma rifle in half and decapitating him.

The last thing Mek saw was a pair of inhuman feet appearing in his vision. Then everything went black.

* * *

Meanwhile, Spartan Fireteam River had arrived at the Pelican crash site and began scouring the wreckage for the Forerunner relic. A unique Spartan-IV team that answered solely to ONI, River had been deployed to grab an important Forerunner artifact that had been captured during the battle.

The Relic was initially leaving the battlefield on a dropship, flying low over the forest so they would be harder to spot. However, a plasma bolt emerged from inside the tree line and taken the ship down in one blow. Curiously, there were no Covenant forces in the area at the time, so what shot them down was still a mystery.

Adding onto the enigma was the fact that quite a few people had survived the initial impact, only to be killed by plasma bolts (which weren't caused by Covenant weapons) and even blades. To top it all off, three Covenant Spec Op teams had been deployed to find the relic, but while Fireteam River had killed one, the other two were killed by some unknown enemy. Regardless, the three man fireteam had a job to complete, but there was a problem;

"You're sure it's gone?" River Lead questioned, annoyed and concerned at the artifact's disappearance.

"Sir, it's not here. Whoever brought the bird likely killed the passengers and took the relic with them."

"Alright, let's get moving, we need to find it." At that order, the squad moved out, though River Lead halted when his motion tracker picked up movement on the outer edge of his range.

Finding nothing, the Spartan shrugged it off as either the wind or some fauna. River Team attempted to find a trail to track the unknown hostiles, but it seemed they were very adept at keeping themselves hidden. After several minutes, River Three reported that the other 2 Covenant Spec Op teams had been brutally massacred, which was alarming on its own.

But, when they tried to radio for extraction, River Team found their communications were being jammed. A noise, that sounded like a cross between a growl and clicking, drew the Spartan's attention.

* * *

**Cliffhanger! Sorry about that, but at least you'll have something to look forward to next time. So stay tuned for Predators vs. Spartan IVs**

**Reviews are welcome.**


	5. Predator vs Spartan-IV

**Well, now the Predator is going to to fight the Spartans. Who will win?**

**I don't own Halo, Alien or Predator.**

* * *

Spinning around, River Lead scanned the area and found a cloaked figure perched on one of the tree branches. Taking aim, the Spartan found himself hurled backwards by a powerful bolt of plasma energy, completely draining his shields. The other Spartans took aim at the cloaked enemy, who leapt from tree to tree, avoiding the gunfire.

At that moment, River Two was struck in the back by another plasma bolt, knocking him to the ground. River Three turned to retaliate, but a bladed disc sliced through her battle rifle and flew straight at her head, forcing the Spartan to fall in order to avoid it.

As soon as River Team recovered, three figures landed around them and deactivated their cloaking devices, revealing that they were Yautja. The Spartans grimaced, the Yautja, or Predators, were a species who liked hunting other living beings as sport. They had also been folded into the Republic and usually served as their agents.

And from the fact that the tallest Predator was wearing the relic on his belt, it seemed these three were working with the Republic. Fireteam River didn't know why the Republic wanted this artifact, but suffice to say the Office of Naval Intelligence would want to know of this encounter.

Provided the Spartans made it out of this alive.

River Two pulled out a shotgun and fired a shot at the nearest Predator. The flechettes collapsed the Yautja's shielding, who retaliated by ripping the weapon out of his hand and bashing him in the face with it. The force of the blow cracked the Spartan's visor and disabled his HUD. River Two quickly ripped it off as his opponent landed a punch in his gut.

Doubling over, the Spartan ripped the helmet off and used it as a makeshift club, staggering the Yautja long enough for River Two to pull his combat knife out. The Predator tilted his head to the side in curiousity, before unsheathing his wrist blades in anticipation.

The two opponents circled one another, as if daring the other to make the first move. Impatient, River Two lunged first, swinging his blade at the Predator's throat, which was easily parried by the more experienced Yautja.

The two of them danced around like that for a while, unable to gain an advantage over the other. The Spartan was used to fighting humans, grunts and hot-headed Elites or Brutes, not an experienced Predator.

By contrast, the Yautja was used to being able to overpower weaker opponents, but River Two's augmentations and armor enchanced strength allowed the Spartan to go blow for blow with the Predator.

Eventually, the battle would be decided when one of the combatants made a mistake, and that's precisely what happened: In the middle of a downward slash, River Two had overextended himself, allowing the Predator to grab the Spartan's arm, pulling it over his shoulder, causing the knife to fall to the ground.

Dazed, the Spartan was unable to defend himself when the Yautja brought his wrist blades up to his chin, impaling the Spartan's head. Turning to regard the rest of the battle, the Predator was just in time to see River Three finish off her opponent with a clip of magnum rounds.

For a moment, the Predator just stood there, shocked at what happened. Then, angered by the death of his younger brother, the Hunter pulled out his smart-disc and hurled it at the female Spartan with a snarl. She spun around at the noise, but this time she was too late to avoid the weapon.

With drained shields and battered armor, River Three was defenseless as the bladed weapon cut through her torso. It took a moment for the Spartan to register what happened, then she split in half.

Meanwhile, River Lead's battle with the Alpha Predator had taken them away from the rest of their groups. Explosions went off all around as the Spartan unleashed a bombardment of grenades at the Yautja, who countered with Plasma Caster fire. Eventually, River Lead managed to get a lucky battle rifle burst which destroyed the Alpha's shoulder cannon, causing him to duck behind cover.

The Spartan cautiously approached the Predator's position, when the hunter stood up and fired a large net from his gauntlet, which engulfed River Lead. The razor mesh started retracting, cutting through the UNSC battle rifle and straining the GEN2 shield generator. With raw strength, the Spartan was able to break free of the net, just in time to avoid being impaled by the Predator's spear.

Rolling to the side, River Lead pulled out the Type-1 plasma sword he had taken from a dead Elite all those years ago. The Yautja stood in a battle ready position and let out a loud roar of their natural battle cry.

Plasma and metal clashed as the two combatants fought, with River Lead frustrated by the pace of the battle. Normally the energy sword would have cut through a normal bladed weapon like a hot knife through butter, but Yautja metal was durable enough to stand up to xenomorph acid and lightsabers, meaning the combi-stick was taking absolutely no damage.

Worse still was the fact that comms were jammed, so he had no idea as to how the rest of the team were doing against their opponents, nor could they call for reinforcements.

River Lead had to end this and quickly. The Spartan captured the Predator in a blade lock, and while the creature was distracted, he pulled out a plasma grenade, stuck it to the Predator's chest plate and leapt out of range of the blast area.

The Yautja had recognized the danger, pulling off that piece of armor and hurling it and the grenade towards the ONI agent. Both were blown back by the explosion, landing several meters from each other.

River Lead struggled to his feet, realizing that the grenade had completely overloaded the armor's shield generator, which the Yautja took advantage of. As the Spartan stood up, the Alpha was already on his feet, aiming his gauntlet mounted spear gun. Three blades plunged into the soldier's neck, completely decapitating him.

The Alpha stood over River Lead's body, before kneeling down and giving his respects to the fallen Spartan. They had fought well, and once again proven why they had their reputation. The Alpha turned at the sound of rustling plants, as one of his brothers walked through the undergrowth. 'Only one?'

The second Predator shook his head, as the Alpha Predator knew that their youngest brother was dead. Growling sadly, the remaining brothers knew that ONI couldn't find out that their agents had been killed by Yautja. Returning to the body of their fallen sibling, they activated the self-destruct implanted in his wrist computer.

The Predators retreated back to their dropship as the blast consumed all matter within 200 meters, leaving no evidence of Yautja involvement.

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**I hope everyone enjoyed this little story. Now for anyone who's going to whine about how the Spartans should have won, let me explain my reasoning; first of all, if they were SPARTAN-IIs or IIIs, then yes they would end up winning the battle. **

**However, S-IVs are still not quite as professional as the previous versions, so they wouldn't be as effective. Coupled with the fact that Predators would have more experience (the Yautja lifespan spans centuries as far as I know) and the fact that these 3 Predators weren't on a hunting trip (so they would put more effort into actually killing their opponents), and you get the outcome of this battle.**

**Anyway, reviews are welcome.**


	6. Wolf vs Kai Leng

**Alright this is a battle between Kai Leng and Wolf (the Predator from AVPR), in a Star Wars setting. I'm taking artistic license with the capabilities of both warriors, mainly to allow both characters to survive attacks that would kill them.**

**I do not own Mass Effect, AVP, Star Wars, etc.**

* * *

Kai Leng crept through the vents of the government building that contained his target. Tenal Ka, the ruler of the Hapes Consortium had been unhelpful towards the Separatist military lately, so High Command had ordered Leng to assassinate her and put a more malleable successor in her place. Admittedly, Kai Leng was familiar with this type of work back during his days with Cerberus...

Before the organization collapsed and he was recruited by the Separatists for his talents. Frankly, his new job was almost exactly the same as his old one, just with a lot more aliens and robots. During his time with Cerberus, the assassin would have never considered working with aliens, but death and resurrection had a way of reorganizing one's priorities.

And now here he was, crawling through the vents to kill a human Jedi, and her child. Truth be told, he would prefer to fight another Force-user in combat, but he had to kill them both quickly. First the mother, then the child, and the Hapes Consortium would fall into chaos.

Leng opened the vent cover that led to Tenal Ka's bedroom and fell to the floor without a sound. Silently, he made his way to the sleeping form of the Hapan ruler, and he realized that her daughter, Allana Solo, was sleeping in the same bed, no doubt due to the young one having some sort of night terror.

A whisper of a smile crossed his face; his job had just become so much easier. Retrieving the enhanced monomolecular sword from his back, the cyborg positioned it so the metal would kill mother and daughter. Raising the blade, Leng plunged it down for the killing blow, a perfect and efficient strike.

If not for the fact that the blade passed right through them, revealing the sleeping forms to be holograms. He had been played. Kai Leng's suspicions were confirmed when his hyper-aware senses detected a soft noise that sounded like a cross between purring and clicking.

Spinning around, Leng was on the recieving end of a vicious uppercut to the jaw by an invisible source. Flying across the room, Leng hit the wall with an audible thud, triggering the alarms as klaxons wailed throughout the Hapan Royal Palace. He barely registered that however, as he was focused on his opponent, who had just appeared out of thin air. Standing at 7 foot 4, clad in metal armor, with fleshlocks coming from the back of his skull, an Yautja was standing in front of the rising Kai Leng.

This was no ordinary Predator, though. This was someone Kai Leng knew personally. Wolf, the personal friend of the Supreme Commander of the Republic, given the dual plasma casters that had appeared on the Yautja's shoulders.

And the three targeting lasers were pointed at Leng's head.

"Kai Leng. You have one oppurtunity to surrender." The Predator growled, though his body language screamed _'don't take it. I could really use the exercise.'_

In response, Leng raised his palm, firing a powerful bolt which staggered Wolf and allowed Kai Leng to leap forward, sword swinging. A pair of wrist blades emerged just in time to intercept the monomolecular blade, as the twin shoulder cannons retracted behind his shoulders. The two fought for a time until Leng managed to backflip away to get some breathing room.

The cyborg swung his sword at the ground, unleashing a wave of electricity into the ground and through the Predator. Wolf braced himself, allowing the energy to pass through him. Yautja skin had always had a higher tolerance to electricity than most beings, and with his augmentations, the Predator barely felt it, instead choosing that moment to retaliate.

Wolf's plasma casters reactivated and targeted the ex-Cerberus assassin, who barely had enough time to raise a barrier from his palm, before the plasma bolt impacted and sent him flying through the window. The assassin channeled his momentum into a backflip, landing in the middle of a courtyard.

The Yautja followed, leaping out the window and landing hard enough to crack the ground. Pulling his combi-stick from his back, Wolf extended it to its full length just as Kai Leng charged forward, blocking the sword strike and forcing him back.

The two of them initiated another duel, with Leng using speed and agility in an effort to offset Wolf's superior strength. But the Predator was still faster than most beings, and soon Leng was forced to give ground, slowly tiring from overexertion. Seizing the advantage, Wolf unleashed a fury of brutal slashes, cutting through the cyborg when they got past his defense.

The finishing move was dealt when the Yautja slammed the hilt of his spear into Leng's face, knocking him to the ground. Seeing that his opponent was unconscious, Wolf took the time to sheath his combi-stick and prepare a portal to transport him for trial.

That provided the opening Leng needed as he leapt up and plunged the sword through Wolf's midsection. Hitting a button on the hilt, thousands of volts plunged through the blade and shocked the Predator. Recovering, Wolf backhanded the cyborg hard enough to send him flying.

Pulling the blade out, Wolf took one look at the now neon tinged sword before he snapped it in half over his knee and let out an angry roar. Leng responded by spitting blood from his mouth, while also preparing his emergency teleportation module. Wolf stalked over to the injured assassin and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him into the air.

Kai Leng struggled for breath as Wolf's grip tightened, as if the Yautja intended to rip his head off. Seeing an opening through his rapidly fading vision, the cyborg swung his legs in a double kick at the newly opened wound in his midsection, exacerbating the pain even further. Wolf dropped the assassin and clutched his wound, while Leng hit the ground running. Blaster bolts flew past the cyborg, who immediately disappeared through a newly opened portal.

"Coward!" The Yautja roared.

Snarling, Wolf watched as Leng escaped, unable to do anything to stop him. As the rift vanished, the Predator found himself surrounded by the Hapan royal guards, who had been completely unaware of the Yautja's plan.

"Stand down!" A female voice ordered, causing everyone to turn towards it. A one-armed red-haired woman strolled through the open courtyard, followed by a young girl holding a baby nexu, between an aging man and woman. Tenal Ka Djo, the leader of the Hapes Consortium, walked up to the Predator and looked over the stomach wound.

"You're injured. We can help you." Wolf shook his head.

"I'll be fine." He pulled a small pack from his bandolier, and broke it in two, revealing strange blue crystals underneath. Before anyone could stop him, he plunged the shards into his stomach, roaring as he did so, which caused the Hapans to tense up.

The crystals had cauterized the entry and exit wounds, and the Predator was inputting commands into his wrist computer, which caused another portal to form. Before Wolf could leave, he heard a voice call out to him and he turned to the person in question who had come alongside her mother.

"Thank you for helping us." Allana said in a sweet voice. Wolf had no clue how to respond to that, so he just nodded, before vanishing into the vortex.


	7. Covenant vs Criminals

**I know it's been a long time since I updated this story, but I got sidetracked with other fics that I've been working on. But I'm back and I've had a new idea for this that connects to my story Intention's Eye. **

**This is also my first attempt at writing a complete space battle in this collection, so I hope everyone enjoys it.**

**I do not own Halo, Star Wars or Mass Effect.**

* * *

In orbit around a barren/lush binary planet, the quiet darkness of space tore itself apart in a vibrant crackle of blue incandescent energy. From the violet-white energy rift, emerged the massive, yet somehow sleek bulk of a CAS-class assault carrier. The ship was known as the _Intention's Eye_, commanded by the Brute Shipmaster Laccabeus.

Within several hundred kilometers of the nearby asteroid field was what had drawn the carrier here: A Kowloon-class freighter that had clearly suffered from a raid by pirates. They had sent a distress signal in the hope that someone would pick it, but it was doubtful that they had expected a massive Covenant carrier to pick it up. The crew aboard was probably feeling dread at the sight of the warship that dwarfed their small freighter.

At least, that's what the majority of the Jiralhanae crew of the warship in question were thinking.

"What is the status of the freighter?" Laccabeus questioned.

"It appears to have suffered extensive damage from an energy weapon." The sensor operator replied. "Power's out across the board, and only the ship's life support is still operational."

The Shipmaster's second in command, Chieftain Makterbus, approached from behind Laccabeus' grav throne, standing off to the side and looking at the display along with his commander.

"Shall I prepare a boarding party?" The lesser Chieftain asked.

"Belay that. Something's not right." Laccabeus muttered, a frown creeping over his face. "Be on guard, and warm up the weapons. We may have walked into a pirate ambush." His words proved prophetic.

The trap was sprung when the freighter exploded, unleashing a powerful gravitational field and magnetic interference. With that in play, the _Eye_ was unable to jump to slipspace immediately, which was when the ambushers struck.

The first sign of an attack came from the squadrons of StarVipers escorting a pair of Tartan-class patrol cruisers. The swarm of small ships blanketed the carrier with laser fire, which retaliated by launching it's own force of Seraph fighers.

While the two forces of fighters engaged one another, the Tartans responded with pinpoint laser fire, wearing on the fighter shields and destroying three. In response, four plasma turrets on the carrier began glowing red before discharging.

The bolts of plasma energy streaked across the void toward the two patrol ships. Though the nimble vessels made a valiant effort to avoid the boiling plasma, the unique tracking properties of the torpedos ensured that they were each struck with two blasts, the first taking out shields, the second delivering the killing blow.

Without their escorts, the StarVipers were easy prey for the Seraphs as well as pulse laser fire from the mothership. Within moments, the small force had been utterly annihilated, but Laccabeus knew it wouldn't be so simple.

This skirmish was just a warm up for the real attack.

That was when a small fleet of Zann Consortium ships emerged from the asteroid field and made a move towards the _Intention's Eye_. These ships were used in the Shadow Collective's piracy operations, and while it was clear that they hadn't expected a CAS-class assault carrier to answer the distress call, they were more than confident enough to believe that they would win against an antiquated Covenant warship.

Of course, it's not like they could've retreated even if they wanted to, as the same FTL disruption field they used to trap the _Intention's Eye_ also kept them from leaving the battlefield.

"Shipmaster, a fleet of warships have emerged from the asteroid field." The Jiralhanae helmsman shouted. "They are moving into attack position."

"Have the Seraphs move to screen the _Eye_." Laccabeus ordered. "Warm up the plasma lines and spin up the energy projector. Then divert all other non-critical power to the shields."

Blue and red bolts of light streaked through the night sky as the two forces engaged one another. Once more, the Seraphs intercepted the fighter squadrons that attempted to get close, while bolts of light streaked through the vacuum towards the graceful bulk of the Covenant ship.

The carrier responded with a pinpoint beam of pure white light, which tore straight through the single Kedalbe-class battleship, immediately overloading its shields and and allowing a following plasma torpedo to penetrate the hull, gutting the reactor. With a burst of light, the battleship vanished, leaving only debris behind.

Vengeance-class frigates fired their mass accelerators in the hope of bypassing the carrier's shields. But while that may have worked in their own galaxy, Covenant energy shields were capable of blocking both solid and energy projectiles.

Interceptor-IV frigates and Crusader-class corvettes opened fire with their turbolasers and laser cannons respectively, but they might as well have been throwing stones at a tank for all the good it did. The Assault Carrier's return fire was tearing through the frigates and fighters like a hot knife through butter.

That was when the Aggressor-class Destroyer made its move.

A spiraling ion shot slammed into the carrier's portside, weakening the shields enough for the following plasma shot to collapse that section. Sensing an opportunity, the hidden Broadside cruiser and Skipray blastboats unleashed their payloads at the weakened area. Though most of the missiles were intercepted by the pulse laser turrets, several got through, causing significant damage and rupturing sections of the hull.

Battered and wounded, the assault carrier's lateral plasma lines heated before the red plasma torpedos erupted, targeting the remaining Vengeance frigates and the Broadside cruiser. The boiling plasma tore the shieldless Vengeances apart, the ships too slow to take evasive action.

The _Intention's Eye_ then turned its attention to the missile cruiser and bomber squadrons. The sleek and speedy Seraphs tore through the Skiprays, who were unable to defend against the Covenant attack.

While the fighters dealt with the bombers, the _Eye _itself fired a pair of plasma torpedoes at the Broadside, in a double tap pattern that blew out the shields, followed by tearing through the hull. The Broadside began listing, escape pods shooting out as the armor melted and cracked. The Seraphs, having finished with the bombers, blasted the escape pods out of the sky.

"Shipmaster, the Aggressor has targeted us!" The helmsman shouted.

"Take evasive action." Laccabeus calmly ordered.

The _Intention's Eye_ activated its port side thrusters just as the destroyer fired its main guns. The carrier leapt out of the way of the ion bolt with a surprising sleekness for a vessel of that size.

The _Eye_ had managed to avoid the ion shot, but the plasma bolt still impacted the bow shields. Luckily, without the preceding ion bolt, the shields held, and the carrier was in the perfect position to retaliate.

The overcharged bow energy projector fired, striking the Star Destroyer amidships. The pencil thin beam of energy overloaded the Aggressor's shields, causing the generators to explode.

Defenseless, the Destroyer was helpless when a pair of plasma torpedos impacted. The first torpedo tore through the ion cannon, leaving that section of the ship sliced apart. The second torpedo shredded the midsection of the ship, boiling all the way through to the reactor core.

A new sun was born in the middle of the system as the plasma ignited the self-destruct system, causing the Aggressor to destroy itself and the few StarVipers that were unlucky enough to have been close by.

With the destruction of their big gun, the Shadow Collective fleet in the system had lost the momentum it had previously enjoyed. What's more, the anti-FTL field that had been deployed earlier had finally worn off, and the few remaining ships took the opportunity to flee into hyperspace, as pirates were wont to do when they realized their opponents could fight back.

Free from the gravitational and magnetic interference, the _Intention's Eye_ recalled its remaining fighters, then made the jump into interdimensional space. But it wasn't long before the ship dropped out, arriving in orbit of a desert planet with plasma fires leaking from gaps in the hull.

"Status report!" Laccabeus shouted over the chaotic bridge alarms.

"Significant damage." A Jiralhanae officer responded. "Our interdimensional drive has been damaged. We'll have to set down on that planet for repairs."

"Begin landing procedures." Laccabeus ordered. "I want operations restored as soon as possible."

The once graceful Covenant ship now limped through the void, it's hull blackened by weapon scarring. Battered and bruised, the _Intention's Eye_ flew towards the planet that would become the crew's home for the next few years (after clearing out the Heretic Geth on the surface). In the end, this little debacle would only serve to make them stronger.

* * *

On the bridge of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer _Scimitar, _a red and black armored Mandalorian strode towards the figures that stood at the holotable. One was another Mandalorian, with spike-like protrusions on the top of his helmet.

The other two figures were the Zabrak heads of the Shadow Collective, Darth Maul and Savage Opress who turned to look at the Death Watch sentry as he strode into the briefing room.

"My Lord, there has been... a situation." The warrior reported. "We've lost one of our piracy fleets in the outer fringes."

Maul's eyes narrowed in anger. "Were there any survivors?"

"Yes, they reported that a CAS-class Assault Carrier was responsible for wiping out the main capital ships."

"They encountered a Covenant warship and still chose to fight?" Savage asked, incredulous at their stupidity. The Mandalorian nodded.

"Then they were fools and incompetents who deserved their fate." Maul declared. "Have the surviving captains executed."

"Yes, my Lord."

The Mandalorian messenger nodded and left the room. Once he was gone, the two Zabraks turned back to the Mandalorian commander Gar Saxon.

"Now commander, I believe you were telling us about the Reaper signal that our agents detected?"

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**Now, if anyone who has read my story Intention's Eye and wondered how the titular vessel became stranded on the planet, well now you know how it happened. **

**As for the ending scene with Darth Maul, this event takes place before the Shadow Collective met up with the second armada of Reapers and his unintentional reconstitution of the Gravemind.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.**


	8. Sith Lord vs Superheroes

**Well, this is one story I've been holding on to for a while. I honestly don't know why it's taken me so long to get this out, but it's done now and ready to be read and enjoyed.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Young Justice or Halo.**

* * *

Darth Maul sprinted through the battlefield, with the device on his belt. The Gravemind had ordered the Sith Lord to take the artifact from this platform filled pocket dimension and get it away from both the Republic and the Separatists.

Just as the Sith Lord was only a few platforms from one of the portals, a figure landed right in front of him. A young, dark-skinned humanoid male landed two meters in front of Maul, facing the Sith Lord.

Clad in a red muscle shirt and black pants, arms covered in tattoos, and carrying a pair of hilts holstered on his back, it would be easy to mistake this being for a human at first glance, but the webbed hands and feet, and the natural gills in his neck, betrayed his true nature.

It was the Atlantean known as Kaldur'ahm, better known under his superhero name; Aqualad.

"You have one chance to surrender." Aqualad calmly ordered, tattoos glowing blue as he drew his water bearers, which formed into a pair of swords. Maul just strode toward him, snarling as he drew his lightsaber and the Darksaber.

"Step aside, boy. I have no time for childish games." Maul hoped to get a rise out of the Atlantean, but Kaldur just smiled as if it was a joke.

"Of course, the servant must obey the order of his master."

"I serve no one!" Maul growled, leaping forward and swinging his saber at Kaldur's head. The water blade parried the blow faster than most humans could react, and the two found themselves in a fast paced duel. Soon both combatants found themselves with locked blades, and Maul started overpowering Aqualad.

The hard water constructs formed with Atlantean magic were strong, but they could not hold off a blade lock with the superheated energy blades for long. Already, steam was curling off the water swords as Maul's blades drew closer to Kaldur's head.

The Atlantean broke the stalemate by kicking Maul in the chest, staggering the Sith Lord and allowing Aqualad to recover. Turning one of his water swords into a whip, Kaldur directed the length of water around Maul's forearm, and sent a surge of electrical energy through the water bearers.

Maul managed to get the whip off him, and soon found himself ducking a the swings from a water mace. Backflipping away to give himself some breathing room, Maul hurled bolts of Force Lightning at his opponent, who simply absorbed them by turning the liquid into a hand held shield.

The battle continued like that for a while, with Aqualad shifting his water bearers between different weapon forms to keep Maul off balance. When the Sith Lord got hit in the face by a water flail, he fell to the ground stunned, allowing Kaldur to take the device from his belt.

The Sith Lord chose that moment to wake up, hitting the Atlantean with a Force Push that sent him flying onto another platform. Dazed, Aqualad had barely enough time to roll out of the way before Maul stabbed his lightsaber right where Aqualad's head used to be.

Aqualad managed to get back into a standing position, but Maul just grabbed him in a Force choke and pulled the artifact from Kaldur's possession. Before it could reach his grip, several explosive pellets detonated in front of the Sith Lord, knocking him back and breaking his hold on the artifact and Aqualad.

Maul had no time to react as this new attacker quickly hit him with a roundhouse kick, followed by a flurry of jabs with a pair of eskcrima sticks that managed to disarm Maul of his lightsabers.

The Sith Lord responded with an uppercut to his opponent, knocking him back and allowing Maul to get a good look at his new enemy. Fair-skinned, wearing an all-black bodysuit interrupted with an artistically rendered blue bird on his chest, and wearing a domino mask around his eyes, Maul realized that this was Nightwing, another superhero from the same world as Aqualad.

"Thanks for the gift."

Nightwing put the artifact in the back of his utility belt, and rubbed his face with his arm before ripping out a birdarang and throwing it at Maul. The Sith Lord caught it with the Force and smirked.

"Is that the best you can do?"

Then Maul noticed a red light on the birdarang. The resulting explosion sent him flying, but he didn't get far before a whip of electrified water wrapped around his torso and slammed him hard into the platform.

Dazed, the Sith could only watch as Aqualad held a water sword to his throat. Nightwing leapt beside his fellow team member, holding his eskcrima sticks in his hand. Stretching out through the Force, Maul soon realized no one was nearby to help him.

"Surrender." Aqualad said, moving the blade closer. "You cannot win."

Before anyone could react, everything around them started shaking.

"What's happening?" Aqualad asked, causing Nightwing to activate a holo-computer built into his gauntlet.

"This dimension's collapsing! We need to leave now!" The acrobat shouted.

Maul used their brief distraction to Force Push them back before he backflipped off of the platform, retrieving his lightsabers with the Force as he did so. Retreating to the portal, Maul saw the remaining combatants break off and activate their teleportation modules, allowing everyone to escape.

Snarling, Maul watched as the two superheroes vanished as well, before making his own escape in the nearest portal, landing on the bridge of his ship. To his relief, he found that Savage had made it out as well, then felt a twitch in his stomach as he realized that he would have to face the consequences for failing to retrieve the artifact.

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**So, just to be clear, this is the point in time where Maul and the Shadow Collective are under the Gravemind's thrall and have yet to break free. Of course, that'll inevitably change.**

**Now, I just want to pre-empt arguments that Maul should've won; against superheroes and supervillains, he doesn't have a chance. They fight and work alongside people who have all the powers basically any Force-user has, only beyond. Not to mention abilities that even the greatest Force-user couldn't hope to match.**

**Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.**


	9. Deadshot vs UNSC Security

**So, just to be clear, this Deadshot is the Young Justice version (yes, there was a Young Justice version in the tie-in comics to the show), but will also be a bit of a composite with the Arkham series version, with just a hint of the Justice League one.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, Young Justice or Killzone.**

* * *

It was a nice sunny day, a perfect time for a grand political gathering and speech on this world in the Outer Colonies. Naturally, this also meant the politician was ripe for assassination. Of course, security had taken precautions, erecting a small energy shield in front of the podium, which prevented any projectile from being shot directly at him.

Furthermore, UNSC marksmen and security had already set up at what would've been ideal sniper locations, to dissuade anyone else from doing the same. Combine that with the Hornets that patrolled the skies, and anyone who attempted an assassination would have to be quite bold or quite clever.

Luckily for Floyd Lawton aka Deadshot, he was both. He had taken up a sniper perch further away from the rally than even the best UNSC marksman would choose, and for good reason; it didn't have a direct line of sight on the target. This might've been a dealbreaker for other snipers, but for Deadshot, it was a difficult, but not impossible shot.

He had a plan to make it as well: his sniper rifle's bullets were capable of ricocheting off of multiple objects, and he planned to use it to bypass the podium's limited shielding and hit the target indirectly. Now, all he needed was one of the patrolling Hornets to move towards the spot he needed them to be.

As he took aim and waited for his opening, he thought back to why he was here. The Light had contracted him out to the Separatists, who apparently needed an excellent assassin, and had given him a target, some political leader in the UNSC Outer Colonies. The hope was that killing him would cause unrest, distracting the UNSC and ONI further.

A crowd had gathered around the rally, consisting of mostly humans, but there were some Sangheili, Yonhet and Unggoy in the crowd as well. This world was a favored spot for asylum seekers of the former Covenant. At that moment, the Hornet moved into position, and Deadshot immediately took aim.

Breathing out, he squeezed the trigger. The result was instantaneous. The shot richocheted off the side of the Hornet, then hit the wall right next to where a UNSC marksman was stationed. The bullet didn't stop there, flying straight over the podium and shield until it hit at an angle, rebounded off the floor of the podium and ricocheted right back into the politician's head.

For a second, there was silence, then screaming rent the air as people started panicking. Security was slow to react, as they were all unsure as to where the shot had come from. Deadshot smiled under his mask and abandoned his perch, moving towards the designated extraction point.

He headed down into the sewers, eager to avoid attention, considering his current attire would make him stand out in a crowd. With a red and silver bodysuit with a silver mask with one of the eyeholes including a glowing red scope, well, it was hard to be inconspicious in that.

Using a motorcycle that had been acquired and stashed down here for this very purpose, Deadshot rode through the sewers at high speed, reveling in the fact that he didn't have any superheroes attempting to halt him as he made his escape. It was so much easier to flee when he didn't have a Kryptonian on his tail. Soon enough, he was just a short distance away from the extraction area, and climbed up the sewer gate.

He was in an abandoned alley in the outskirts of the city, just a mile away from the ship. The forest that hid the vessel was in sight, and with UNSC forces still confused, he would get away with ease.

"Hold it right there!"

Deadshot froze. Then with a sigh, he put his hands in the air. "Turn around." He did so, finding himself face to face with a squad of five of the planet's security forces. He smirked under his mask.

"You're under arrest." The squad leader declared. "You're coming with us."

Deadshot paid him no mind, already thinking up a plan to deal with them. Through his visor, he could see that none of them were using energy shields, which made this a hell of a lot easier.

"Don't be so sure about that." Floyd said, causing the soldiers to tense up. It didn't help them.

While UNSC troops had been using weak energy shields, it was a luxury that was still unafforded by the bulk of this world's security forces. And even if they were, the shields were nowhere near the level of a Spartan: A single high caliber round could penetrate the shield and kill the wearer with ease.

Not that this mattered to Deadshot, seeing as he had a far higher caliber on his wrist guns. Acting quickly, he lowered his arm and fired one round, which killed all five of the security troopers by rebounding off of their weapons, parts of their armor, and even bouncing off the alley wall at one point.

As soon as the troopers had fallen, four more immediately moved up to take their place. Unfortunately for them, they were the only reinforcements they had. Apparently, the police and UNSC were spread thin trying to track the assassin down. This was good news for Deadshot, who gunned them down without hesitation.

With all the soldiers down, Deadshot was free to get back to the ship. Running through the nearby forest, he pulled the camouflage netting off the Overlord dropship that had brought him here.

As soon as he was onboard the Separatist issued dropship, he slammed his fist on the cockpit door, as a signal for the pilot to get moving. Activating FTL travel as soon as it was airborne, the dropship fled with Deadshot onboard, leaving chaos and confused analysts and AIs in his wake.

* * *

A few hours later, several such analysts and an AI were the first to look at what happened during the assassination, piecing together the shooter's perch and his path of extraction from scattered camera recordings, and bullet forensics. The latter had them especially baffled, to say the least.

"Are you sure you're functioning correctly?"

"I am working at optimal capacity." The AI Gibbs retorted. "The numbers are accurate."

"There has to be some kind of mistake." Veta Lopis replied. "Because that just isn't possible!"

The reactions of security had been stymied by the fact that no one had known where the bullet had come from. Initially, it had seemed like one of the snipers assigned to protect the target had been responsible for the shot, but that was quickly debunked when the suspect in question had reported the bullet mark right next to his perch.

Combine that with the Hornet that reported that it had been shot at, and it painted a very disturbing image that someone had managed to ricochet a sniper round off of several surfaces to hit the target.

Any attempt to dismiss that as blind luck fell apart when they found the security squad that had briefly cornered the assassin had been killed by one bullet. This led to the current argument between human and AI.

"C'mon, not even SPARTAN-058 could pull off that shot with a sniper rifle, let alone a hand gun." Lopis protested. "No one is that good."

"Well apparently the Separatists know someone who is."

Lopis rubbed her eyes tiredly and sighed. She had been at this for several hours, investigating the events that had happened here alongside other ONI operatives. And the more she saw, the harder it was to believe.

It didn't help that the confusion had slowed the response of security in regards to intercepting the assassin, and the response they had was sloppy. Two dead squads attested to that fact.

"Right, send this information to command." Lopis ordered.

Gibbs nodded and his avatar vanished, leaving the former Gao detective alone with her thoughts. One way or another, she could be sure of one thing: Admiral Osman was going to want to hear about this.

* * *

**Well, suffice to say ONI would definitely be interested in Deadshot. Seriously, that guy's improbable aiming skills definitely put Linda's to shame (never seen her make a shot where it ricocheted off several different surfaces). **

**Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.**


	10. Miners vs Criminals and Flood

**Alright, this chapter details the events that brought the Flood back in their purest form to the multiverse, in case anyone was wondering how that happened. Inspired by the machinima Bicheron III, by Chronicler 177.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this chapter except for the story.**

* * *

Kyle sighed, looking out from the view in his office, just staring out into the void of space. He had just finished with his latest report, and had found it rather disappointing. When the mining guild first got to this asteroid field, created from the remains of a partially shattered world, they were hoping for a gold mine of new resources to sell to the people of the fringes. These regions were an unexploited market, one which the mining guild was happy to tap into, especially with larger corporations taking the business in the more civilized areas.

Unfortunately, several mechanical disasters with the mining equipment had meant that progress was slow, and their backers weren't exactly happy with that. Eventually, they had managed to get back on schedule, and had been churning out the needed fuels and resources for the fringe worlds.

Soon, one of the asteroids had been hollowed out, and the guild had set up a small colony within, containing living quarters, entertainment facilities, processing plants, and all the things needed to keep the mines running indefinitely while they hollowed out and smelted down all the other asteroids. Overall, it was rather prosperous.

Then something strange had happened: A meteor had crashed into one of the largest asteroids nearby. While normally this wouldn't be seen as unusual, it had literally come from nowhere, appearing right in the void of space where nothing had been before.

Furthermore, cursory scans from one of their drones detected unusual readings, and revealed that the device was made of an unknown metal-like substance. It had been warped and twisted beyond all measure, but it hadn't been from the impact.

The meteor was unusual enough that the science team requested a chance to study it. Kyle had reluctantly granted their request, and a prefabricated building was quickly assembled around the artifact, connected to the rest of the mining colony by a rather vulnerable boarding tube.

The scientists had spent a decent amount of time studying the meteor, stating that it was an amazing scientific anomaly. All Kyle had wanted to know was whether or not they could profit off of it.

Unfortunately, without being able to identify the substance the meteor was made of, they couldn't really sell it for anything. All they knew was that the substance was nigh-indestructible; they couldn't even collect a sample of it.

With a sigh, Kyle put the datapad and the report back on his desk. He was tempted to scrap the whole project, seeing as it was frankly just a resource drain, but the science team had successfully lobbied for a few more days. With any luck, they would figure out what the meteor was, and what they could do with it by that time.

...

Kyle awoke a few days later to the sound of blaring alarms all over the colony. As he struggled out of bed, explosions rocked the asteroid, and he stumbled to regain his balance. Quickly, he exited his quarters and grabbed one of the miners who ran past.

"What's going on?"

"We're under attack!" The miner replied. "Some sort of vessels are burning through the asteroids."

"Who are they? Pirates?"

It was a reasonable concern. More than once, pirates had raided the colony, no doubt looking for something to loot, but they had always been repelled by the colony's defense cannons, which had been installed for this purpose.

"No idea."

Another miner ran past, causing the first one to leave. Kyle stopped the second miner and asked him the same question.

"Are they pirates?"

"Not likely." He replied. "There are too many and they're too heavily armed to be pirates."

Another explosion shook the asteroid, causing the two of them to stumble. Regaining their balance, the miner ran further down the hall, while Kyle ran to a nearby terminal and took a look at the sensor data.

The news was very bad: heavily armed warships had surrounded the station, destroying any asteroids in their path and bombarding the station. Fighters flitted through the field, blasting any ship and escape pod that attempted to flee from the asteroid. The defense cannons had been destroyed entirely, being unable to even harm the larger ships.

Upon further analysis, Kyle realized that several formations of small craft were emerging from their motherships, and were being escorted in by the fighters. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. They were about to be boarded. Quickly, Kyle turned on his heel and rushed towards the one safe place that remained near the colony.

* * *

Boarding craft burned their way into the station, depositing ruthless soldiers who instantly shot down anyone in their paths. It was a motley crew of many different species, but all seemed hell bent on simply killing indiscriminately.

Meanwhile, the miners could only fight back with the bare minimum of defense weapons, improvised mining equipment and their knowledge of the colony. Yet, the miners couldn't hold on forever, and in several locations, were easily massacred by the mercenaries.

A group of miners managed to escape the onslaught, hiding themselves in an abandoned corridor as the alien soldiers thundered past, shuddering at the screams that permeated the air.

Their relief in their safety died when a red light suddenly sprung to life behind them with a snap-hiss. Turning around slowly, the miners were confronted with a pair of demons.

One was rather large, wearing black armor, and covered with yellow and brown tattoos. The other was shorter, wearing black clothing as well, and was covered in red and black tattoos. The thing both of these creatures had in common were the crown of horns on their heads, the unnatural red-rimmed golden eyes, and the glowing red energy blades they held in their hands.

The screams and panicked fire permeated the hallway as the miners tried to flee, but the door refused to stay open for very long. Abruptly, the screams and firing halted, leaving an eerie humming noise in the backdrop.

...

In the umbilical leading to the asteroid held by the scientists, a large group of miners were gathering, desperate to escape the onslaught in any way they could. Strangely, the attackers hadn't come here yet, which meant that it was safe, at least for now. Of course, none of that mattered since they couldn't get through the door, which was locked for some reason.

A cloud of blue particles floated in the middle of the hallway, before abruptly gathering together, quickly forming the shape of a black armored figure with a glowing blue visor and a cannon on its right arm.

The black armored being hovered a foot in the air, in defiance of the artificial gravity. The miners targeted the assailant with their makeshift weapons, but it didn't even seem to notice their attacks.

Almost lazily, the entity raised the cannon on its right arm and fired. The result was immediate. A stream of blue bolts were fired down the hallway, eviscerating the miners before they could react. With a single blast, Dark Samus had killed them all, leaving their bodies available for her master.

It didn't take long for the rest of the raiders to appear, led by the two Zabraks. They crossed through the umbilical, ever alert for the unlikely possibility that the survivors had set a trap for them. The Sith and Nightbrother were completely unconcerned, already well aware that there wasn't anyone left who could threaten them, though they did flinch when Dark Samus assembled herself in front of them.

Wordlessly, a pair of armored Mandalorians ran ahead of the group, attaching breaching charges to the door. As soon as the warriors had cleared the blast zone, the charges exploded, blowing through the armored doors with ease.

The raiders entered first, scanning the area for stuff to steal and people to kill. They passed by a small locker hidden in an alcove, unaware of the cowardly manager hiding within. Kyle clamped his hands over his mouth, to ensure that he couldn't give himself away.

The dark armored being floated past as well, almost seeming aimless in its movements. A moment later, he saw the two Zabraks walking past as well, seeming without a care in the world.

The had almost walked past when the red and black tattooed one halted in his tracks, causing the larger one to stop as well. Slowly, in an eerily synchronized movement, the two heads turned towards the locker he was hiding in, yellow eyes glaring at his hiding place.

Suddenly, the door to the locker flew off its hinges, causing Kyle to scream and void his bowels. He tried to bring his pistol to bear, but he suddenly found himself choking, and was pulled by an invisible force into the grasp of the red Zabrak, with his hand around his throat while the other hand disarmed him.

"Hello, so glad to make your acquaintance." His captor snarked. "I am Maul, and I believe you have found something we want."

"The meteor?" Kyle gasped. In response, Maul tossed him to the ground.

"Very good. So you do know where it is."

"Maybe we could make a deal." Kyle said, struggling up from the ground. "I can give you what you want and in exchange-" A snap-hiss and a red energy blade was suddenly pointing at his throat.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear." The Sith snarled. "You will take us to it, or I will gut you where you stand." Kyle gulped.

"Right this way." He squeaked.

* * *

Dragged up by a pair of soldiers, Kyle led the way through asteroid, feeling the smallest pang of guilt as he led his captors through the mines. When the attack started, he had fled to this asteroid and barricaded himself inside, leaving the rest of the miners to their fate.

He felt awful for doing that, especially when the raiders had started gunning down the inhabitants without hesitation, but he had long since had a strong survival instinct; it was part of the reason he had ascended so high in the mining guild in the first place.

His musings were interrupted when he arrived at the door to the science team site. The door was locked down, and only his security override would open. His two escorts pushed him towards the keypad, pointing their blasters at him when he hesitated.

With a heavy sigh, Kyle inputted the code, and the door slowly ground open. The second it had opened fully, energy lances erupted from the interior, catching several of the Black Sun soldiers in the chest.

"No! Stop!" Kyle called as the science team let loose with their weaponized mining equipment, while the Shadow Collective retaliated.

The scientists fought admirably, especially for people who had never actually held a gun in their lives, but it was all for naught. The Shadow Collective forces were better trained, better equipped, much more numerous, and much more ruthless.

Kyle rushed forward, but was knocked to the ground by someone's elbow, leaving him lying on the floor with blood gushing from his nose. By the time his vision cleared, the larger Zabrak had cut down the last scientist with his lightsaber.

Kyle bowed his head in shame, knowing that he was the last one still alive in the colony. He had failed the people he had sworn to serve, and now these criminals would likely kill him along with all the rest.

To his surprise, everyone seemed to completely ignore him, instead parting ways to allow a clear path to the artifact as a portal opened in the doorway. He covered his mouth in horror and disgust as... something emerged from the rift.

The creature was a misshapen blob of diseased flesh that vaguely resembled a being with four arms, five glowing yellow eyes arranged in a circle on its head while the unnatural mouth rested in the middle. Glowing blue lines criss-crossed the upper body in unusual patterns, strange silver-blue cybernetics could be seen under its skin, while a long segmented 'tail' emerged from the base of its skull. The creature's lower body was vaguely serpentine, and a horrific stench permeated the air as it moved forward.

The being ignored Kyle as it moved towards the artifact, rather gracefully for something that should move like a slug. Meanwhile, the rest of the Shadow Collective had backed away in what appeared to be pure terror, if the Zabrak expressions were any indication. Hell, even Dark Samus seemed rather intimidated. The creature paused in front of the meteor, and began to speak.

"It has survived." A rasping baritone voice emerged from the creature, one that sent shivers up Kyle's spine.

"Do you have what you need, Master?" Maul asked hesitantly.

In response, the creature just put a single hand on the metal. Almost instantly, a small cloud of greenish spores emerged from the point of contact and spread themselves all over the creature's hand, before traveling up the rest of the thing's body.

Just as quickly as the spores appeared, they immediately vanished, having been absorbed by the monstrous entity. It had changed now; the creature's skin had taken on a greenish-yellow texture, the blue tron lines on its body became more symmetrical and less pronounced, the cybernetics vanished completely under its skin, and it almost seemed to be more complete.

"It is all here." The creature replied. "Collect the remaining spores."

Several soldiers in full hazard gear moved forward, attaching strange cylindrical tanks to the meteor. Quickly, they began filling up with the same greenish mist that had appeared earlier. Kyle watched as the larger Zabrak approached the creature with its head bowed.

"Should we not just bring the meteor with us?" Savage asked.

"It has completed its task. It was not meant to survive, merely protect the contents." The creature said. "Even the change in time could not protect the shell."

Even as the creature said that, Kyle noticed that the meteor in question almost seemed to be eroding slowly. Whatever it was meant to protect, it appeared that the container/meteor really wasn't meant to survive for very long.

"And what of the superpowers?" The Sith Lord asked. "Surely they will notice what has happened here?"

"Very soon." The creature agreed. "But they are already too late. Now go, get back to your ships. I still can use you as you are."

"As you wish, Master." Maul bowed, quietly terrified.

Hurriedly, the Shadow Collective soldiers filed out, as a group of humans arrived from a nearby portal and got on their knees in front of the abomination. All except two, who were now holding Kyle by his arms.

"At long last!" One of the clearly religious nutjobs shouted, his arms raised in joy. "True Convergence is upon us! The great creator has returned! Our bodies are yours to command!"

"Yes, they are." The creature said, it's four hands outstretched.

A cloud of green spores emerged from each hand, surrounding the creature and engulfing the worshippers in the mist. All of them started convulsing as green-yellow tumors began spreading all over their bodies, twisting them into unnatural abominations.

As they were transforming, the larger creature vanished into the portal which sealed behind it, while the guards that had been holding Kyle captive let him go and fell to their knees themselves.

The abominations charged at the kneeling servants, and the latter were quickly overwhelmed with slashes from their claws. In less than 30 seconds, the two had been transformed into abominations of their own, all of which immediately turned toward Kyle, who had grabbed one of the makeshift weapons from the ground.

He fired at one of the creatures, but it didn't even slow down before they were on him as well. He dropped his gun, screaming in agony while the screams were quickly replaced with the howl of the Flood.

Kyle rose from the ground, now another Flood combat form like the rest. Meanwhile, the remainder of the Flood spores began circulating through the air, minding the bodies of the scientists and turning them, before heading back down the umbilical, to the main colony that the Shadow Collective had retreated from. With all the dead bodies on the ground, it was trivial to take the station over...

* * *

Far away from the colony, a Republic vessel flew through the void of space, looking for any signs of the Shadow Collective. Onboard the bridge, Captain Zatelia sighed, looking over the instruments as the crew performed their duty.

It was a thankless job, but someone had to do it. With the satellites capable of detecting Marker and Reaper signals from universes away, locating the Gravemind's actual forces was fairly simple (though managing to pin them down long enough to destroy them still had its own difficulty).

Finding the Shadow Collective wasn't quite as simple however, as they could slip through the cracks of their detection abilities. Obviously, they couldn't smuggle anything Reaper or Necromorph related that wouldn't give them away, but they could still cause damage, which was likely why the Gravemind had 'recruited' them in the first place.

"Anything?" Zatelia asked. The ship's AI popped up on a nearby holopad.

"Possibly." The AI replied. "We recieved a brief distress signal from a mining colony. It was cut off before it had a chance to elaborate, but they did mention a pirate attack."

"What would the Shadow Collective want with a mining colony?"

"Unknown, but it would match their MO. What the Gravemind would want from that, I can only speculate."

"Well, it's not like we're getting any other readings." Zatelia said. "Set a course, get us there."

"Of course sir, plott-" The AI paused, which was something he never did. "Captain, I'm detecting a Marker signal on the colony."

"Well, then that's definitely our target." The Captain responded. "Contact the Fleet. Let them know we have a possible lead on the Shadow Collective."

"Message already sent." The comms officer said. "They're heading our way."

Suddenly, the AI registered a ping from the Republic satellites, the ones that had been created to track Marker and Reaper signals. They were also designed to detect another form of biomatter, one which the superpowers had hoped they would never have to see again. But this ping confirmed their worst fears.

"What?" Everyone turned to the sensor operator as he checked his own instruments. "That can't be right."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

"Sir, according to the sensors and our probes, we're detecting Flood bio-signs on the asteroids!"

"That's not possible." Zatelia said. "Scan again."

"He is correct Captain." The AI said, his voice actually trembling slightly. "Our probes are detecting the same thing."

"And what does that mean?" The Captain asked, barely managing to keep his own voice level. He could already guess, but he and the rest of the bridge crew wanted to hear something different, something that denied this fact. Their hopes were dashed by the AI's next words.

"It means that the Flood has returned."

There was a moment of silence as the bridge took in what was just said. Then the Captain spoke, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of his seat. "Contact the rest of the Republic. Tell them that Emergency Code Alpha Black has been declared. Repeat: Emergency Code Alpha Black! Get us to that colony."

The ship leapt into the interdimensional void, and reappeared in real space seconds later. They were surrounded by asteroids, with the larger ones showing signs of habitation. Seconds later, more Republic warships arrived in the system, just as several damaged vessels exited the recently damaged asteroid facilities.

Republic fighters wasted no time in shooting those ships down before they could jump to FTL, while the larger warships immediately fired on the colony itself. The effect was immediate, as beams of energy bore straight through the asteroids and came out the other side.

This set off a chain reaction, as the volatile fuel ignited, but the Republic shielding held as they spared no hesitation, targetting any rock that had a trace of Flood biomatter on it, not stopping until they were no more than scattered atoms.

In a very short period, all the Flood forms had been annihilated, and scans confirmed that the entire sector was clear. But no one was celebrating, and everyone resumed their tasks with grim determination.

Zatelia desperately wanted to believe that the Flood threat had ended once more, and this would be all they faced, but he wasn't delusional enough to think that. The Shadow Collective had already left the system, which would mean so had the Flood.

It had started again.

* * *

**Well, that ends this little chapter. Honestly, it's something I've been thinking of for a while now, but I just had it shelved. I'm not entirely sure why. Still, I figured I should get it out sooner rather than later.**

**I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.**


	11. Avatar vs Ghost Rider

**Ok, so this was just a thought that came to me; and I decided to put it down. It's Team Avatar from Legend of Korra vs Robbie Reyes aka Ghost Rider from Agents of SHIELD. Also, just an FYI, this is a sequel to the Legend of Korra chapter in Accounts of the Flood conflicts.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any franchise that appears here.**

**EDIT: 09/24/2017: A little announcement to those unaware, I have made a continuation of this one-shot in another fic, entitled Spirits and Shields. If you want to more of this, then I'd recommend taking a look. And to those who have come to read this chapter because of the above story, well, I hope you enjoy this.**

* * *

It had been nine months since Kuvira attacked Republic city, and three months since the alien parasite known as the Flood had been burned out of their world by the Republic and Separatists. Since that time, life had managed to go back to some semblance of normalcy, but at the same time, it wasn't.

The Red Lotus had become increasingly active in the wake of the Flood attack, seemingly willing to cause chaos wherever they went. Their current goal was unknown, seeing as Zaheer was still locked in prison and any attempts to kidnap the Avatar again would end badly, as Korra was actively hunting pockets of agents down herself. Now though, a new player would make himself known.

At one of the Agni Kai triad's known hideouts, one suspected to be used by Red Lotus agents from time to time, an explosion of flame erupted from the doors and windows, as screams echoed throughout the streets, drawing the attention of onlookers to the fighting inside.

One of the firebending criminals stumbled out of the flames before he started running, desperately trying to escape the carnage. He didn't get far; a flaming chain emerged from the inferno, wrapping itself around the runner and pulling him back, screaming at the top of his lungs.

After that little display, it didn't take long for the police to get called in, as the first responders arrived on the scene rather quickly. They were just in time to witness a strange black car driving away, a model completely unknown to them, leaving them surrounded by dozens of scared and innocent people.

...

Mako was one of the detectives at the scene in the morning, utterly baffled by everything he had heard from the few civilians who were willing to talk, as well as the medical report from the hospital.

"Rough night, I see." Mako turned in surprise at the voice.

"Chief Beifong." He stuttered in surprise. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"An Agni Kai Triad hangout and suspected Red Lotus facility gets torched during the night." She pointed out. "This is definitely something important."

She wasn't kidding. In the last month, there had been three similar attacks on criminal hangouts that were suspected to be used as either meeting or recruiting points for the terrorist group. It couldn't be a coincidence that what seemed like the same person was attacking those locations.

"Eyewitnesses say that after the attacker locked one of them in the trunk, he fled the scene in some unknown design of Satomobile. Apparently, the licence plate had the word 'California' on it." Mako shrugged. "That's all they can remember that stands out."

"What about the attacker?" Lin asked. "Did we get a description on him?" Mako sheepishly looked back at his notes.

"The only thing we've got to go on is a 'man on fire'." Mako said. "That was also the last thing the survivor said before he died."

Lin grimaced at that. There had been one survivor of the hideout's destruction, who had been suffering from horrific burns all over his body. He had been rushed to a hospital, but the strange thing was, waterbending had no effect at all. The healing waters failed to even ease the effects of the burns and the man had died in pain.

"We might want to call Korra for this." Mako suggested. "Flaming chains? Burns that won't heal? That definitely doesn't fit your normal Firebender capabilities."

"And it's not like we've had any better luck." Lin sighed in frustration. "Besides, if it's tied to the Red Lotus like this, then it's definitely something that needs the Avatar's attention. I'll call Tenzin. He'll know where Korra is."

...

Meanwhile, in an abandoned warehouse, the survivor in question was chained up in front of the car that had driven him away. The driver, who went by the name of Robbie Reyes, was currently standing in front of the begging criminal.

"Please, I don't know where they are!" This answer earned him a hard punch to the face.

"You're lying." The firebender coughed, blood coming out. "They contacted you, and you helped them take it." Another punch. "You don't owe them anything, so make this easy on yourself." The man spat out more blood, then looked at Robbie with a determined look in his eyes.

"The Red Lotus gave me purpose." He said proudly, his head held high. "I would sooner die than betray them."

"Through respect or fear?" Robbie countered, grabbing his chin with one hand and forcing him to look him in the eye. "Ah, it's both. Well, let me tell you something; they're not the ones you need to fear right now."

"You think I'm afraid of you?" Robbie's answer was a brief smirk devoid of any humor.

"I'm not who you need to be afraid of. If you don't talk to me," His eyes took on an orange tint. "you'll have to talk to the other guy. And he won't ask as nicely as I will." The firebender paled at that thought, his bravado evaporating in an instant.

...

It didn't take long for the rest of Team Avatar to arrive, most of them having been close by Republic City anyway. Korra and Bolin had been traveling around with the Air Nation, assuring the nearby populace that the world wasn't under threat from another orbital bombardment any time soon, while Asami was helping by coordinating the restoration of the glassed regions.

During that time, they also had to tangle with agents of the Red Lotus, who had come out of whatever hole they had been hiding in after the multiversal superpowers had left. Fortunately, without Zaheer and his group leading them, they weren't as much of a threat, but they seemed to be gaining new members every day.

The Avatar and the airbenders had spent a lot of time searching for whoever was running the show now, but without much luck. The Four Nations had basically been forced to an observing role for the moment, watching suspected hotspots of criminal activities for clues. And now, they clearly had a new issue in doing this, one which the Avatar hoped to deal with quickly.

"So you're sure about this?" Mako asked.

"I can find him." Korra confirmed. They were standing at a cluster of spirit vines, one of many clusters all over the city. "If we find this guy's captive, we'll find him."

"Then we'll take him down." Bolin said, giving a mini-fist pump.

Initially, Korra had wanted to use the spirit vines to find the man himself, but she didn't even know where to look. She had asked the spirits, but strangely, they either couldn't or wouldn't identify the one responsible.

Shaking out of her musings, Korra walked over to the nearest spirit vine, letting her consciousness spread throughout the city. Instead of searching for him, she sent her awareness after the man who'd been taken. She quickly found their target's signature at an old abandoned warehouse. Screams of fear could be heard even in this state, and she rushed in to see what was happening.

Inside, Korra saw the possible Red Lotus member chained to a wall in front of a strange black car, his face battered, bruised and bloodied. He had a look of terror, and it was all directed at his assailant, who Korra now turned her attention to. He was wearing mostly black clothing, with a strange white symbol on the front of his jacket, and his face was currently framed in shadow. Just as she was about to leave, something disturbing happened.

The man's face turned, still concealed in shadow, only to halt his gaze right where her perspective was pointed, looking right at her, as if he somehow knew he was being watched. Quickly, she pulled herself back, now standing with her team again.

"I know where he is."

...

Back at the warehouse, the Triad member was all but broken inside. He had been forced to reveal everything he knew to this horrible monster, who was now currently looking away at something the firebender couldn't see. This moment of peace gave the Agni Kai member a moment to think, a shiver travelling down his spine.

The Red Lotus sympathizer realized that if it was found out he told, his life was forfeit. The Red Lotus wouldn't take kindly to his confession, and the only way to fix it was clear. He had been using his firebending to cut through the chains when his captor wasn't looking, and now was almost free.

Having finally melted enough of the chains, the firebender screamed from the molten metal and sent a burst of flame at Robbie. The man made his last mistake, as the unharmed Robbie retaliated on instinct and drove his flaming chain through the bender's skull.

Looking down over the body, Robbie felt no pity over the man's death. He had murdered a number of people during his work with the Triads and with the Red Lotus, would have killed so many more. At any rate, there wasn't anything else he would've been able to tell, but the Rider knew that they had another problem; someone had been able to track this guy using the Spirit Vines.

Having sensed the spiritual change, Robbie knew that someone would be on his trail pretty quickly. He got in his car and took to the road, aware of how conspicuous his vehicle was compared to everyone else. Still, he was hoping that he could blend in to the night traffic, but that hope was quickly dashed as he drove along the river.

...

"Korra, my officers are at the address you gave us." Lin's voice crackled over the radio. "Our Agni Kai victim is dead and the suspect is missing. Judging by the tire marks, he left in a hurry."

"Copy that Chief." Korra replied. "We'll keep watch from the sky, see if we can't spot him."

"Alright, call us in if you get a visual."

"Well, it shouldn't be too hard to spot him up here." Bolin said.

Team Avatar had borrowed Oogie from Tenzin, and were currently using him to get a bison eye view over Republic City. Police airships were also flying around, but at the moment, none were in their airspace.

"He took off quickly." Mako noted. "Almost as if he was expecting us."

"He might've been." Korra said. "When I was looking through the spirit vines, he seemed to notice me. I was hoping I was wrong."

"It's not your fault." Asami said. "You couldn't have known he would sense it."

"Still, it might take a while to find him." Mako sighed. "There are still a lot of cars out tonight. Finding his will be like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Maybe not." Asami had her eyes through a pair of binoculars. "I think I've found him."

"You're sure?"

"It's definitely not any satomobile I've seen before." Asami handed the binoculars to Korra. "And the driver seems to be moving quickly, but not too quickly. I'm pretty sure he's trying to avoid too much attention."

Korra's eyes widened. It was the same car she had seen in her vision, and it definitely did not match any of the other vehicles driving through the street. Putting the binoculars down, she reached for the radio.

"Lin, we've got eyes on him." Korra reported. "He's on east and 2nd, heading for the river."

"Alright, I've got one officer nearby." The chief replied. "Meet up with him and try to slow him down."

"Copy that." The rest of Team Avatar turned to Bolin. "Are you ready?" The Earthbender nodded.

"Let's do this."

...

A pool of lava appeared in the middle of the road, and with no time to stop, the Charger drove into it, completely undamaged and unstopped by the intense heat. Robbie's car was halted however, when the lava abruptly hardened again, leaving his tires jammed into the street. Snarling, he got out and pushed the Charger, his enhanced strength sufficient enough to get it free.

At that moment, a metal cable wrapped itself around his arm, pulling Robbie back, away from his car. He turned to see one police officer trying to wrangle him, but with his strength, he pulled the man onto the ground before unwrapping it from his wrist. He didn't get very far before more metal and earth appeared, binding him to the dirt.

Korra leapt onto the street floor, airbending slowing her fall as she came to a halt in front of her quarry. She noted the strange design of the car, as well as the fact that she couldn't metalbend the vehicle, before putting her full attention on the man himself. He didn't exactly look like much, but then again, most of her worst threats never did. Meanwhile, the rest of Team Avatar emerged from their vantage points.

"This is the guy?" Bolin asked, walking out alongside Mako and Asami. "I thought he'd be tougher to catch than this."

"Well he wasn't exactly subtle." Asami pointed out, gesturing to the vehicle. "I don't know where he got that, but it's a little too distinct to go unnoticed."

"Damn, I thought he'd be harder to catch than this." Mako rubbed the back of his neck in an embarrassed manner.

"Better safe than sorry." Korra pointed out. "And easy or not, we need answers from him."

"You're the Avatar?" Their conversation was interrupted by Robbie, who was simply looking at them in curiosity. "The 'bridge' between humans and spirits?"

Korra and Asami exchanged a brief look of confusion and concern: the emphasis he placed on the word 'bridge' was rather odd. Nor did he seem rather concerned at meeting her. He was hiding something, that was clear.

"What's it to you?" Bolin interjected, to the exasperation of the others.

"I'll take that as a yes." Robbie said, rolling his eyes. "I have no quarrel with you."

"Well, we have to disagree." Mako interjected. "You've been hunting down Red Lotus members. Why?"

"My business is my own." He barely acknowledged Mako, keeping his gaze on Korra. "Walk away, Avatar." The Hispanic man said. "This doesn't concern you."

"I'm afraid it does. Even if they were Red Lotus, you've killed people." Korra responded. "I can't turn a blind eye to that."

"They had it coming." With nary a groan, Robbie broke free of his restraints with ease, to the surprise of everyone. He rolled his head and shifted before turning his attention back to Team Avatar, who were now in combat positions. He just smirked.

"I know what you're trying to stop this Red Lotus group, but those guys wouldn't have been able to give you anything useful. Besides, this is something beyond you."

Confused, Korra was about to ask what he was talking about, but she was interrupted: More rocks appeared, along with cables and metal bars, forming a small makeshift cage around him. The metalbending police landed on the ground, swinging and retracting their cables, Lin at the front of the group.

"It doesn't matter. You don't get to decide who lives or who dies." Lin said angrily. To everyone's surprise, Robbie let out a humorless chuckle and looked down for a moment, his hands grasping the 'bars'.

"Deja vu." He muttered before turning his gaze at them again, his eyes glowing orange. "Like I've told others before you; I'm not the one who decides." The stone and rock he was holding began glowing. Smoke started emerging from his head, which was when things got really freaky.

Korra's eyes widened at the sight. His skin bubbled and boiled away, flakes of flesh disintegrating into ash. Hellish fiery pupils appeared where his eyes had been, glaring at them. A demonic growl emerged from what remained of his head, which was nothing more than an unnatural looking cracked skull wreathed in flames.

Irritated, the flaming demon shattered the bars of his makeshift cage, the rock and metal being less of a challenge than the walls of SHIELD's containment module. Ghost Rider broke free of the makeshift prison, tanking the bombardment of stone and metal that followed without even flinching.

"Asami, get back." Lin ordered the Future Industries CEO. "We'll handle this." Reluctantly, after a brief reassuring nod from Korra, Asami retreated to a safe location.

Bolin stamped on the ground sending a small wave of lava into the Rider's path. To everyone's shock, he just moved right through it, with absolutely no signs of pain or damage on the demon's end. Mako then hit him with a long burst of fire, but again, the Rider just shrugged it off, actually raising an eye-ridge slightly as if to say "Really?"

Unwrapping his chain from his body, he swung the metal at the nearest officers, sending three of them flying. The rest of the metalbending police reacted by sending a barrage of smaller rocks and metal disks at him, followed by one larger boulder.

The Ghost Rider easily took the smaller chunks of earth and metal, sidestepped the larger rock, then managed to grab the boulder mid flight with his chain, using the momentum to swing it around and hurling it towards Bolin. The Earthbender drew up another pillar to intercept it, but the momentum was strong enough to break the barrier and send the lavabender flying.

Mako charged up a bolt of lightning and released it, the bolt of energy striking the flaming skeleton head on. The Ghost Rider was pushed back for a half second, then charged forward, utterly ignoring the continuous bolt of electricity that was shot into his chest.

Too late, Mako attempted to move out of the way, but the Rider was on him, punching him hard in the chest and knocking him to the ground, leaving him wheezing painfully from the injury.

Suddenly, a metal cable wrapped around the demon's arm pulling him off balance and allowing Korra to hit the Rider with a burst of water from the nearby canal and freeze it completely. For a split second, it seemed like they might have subdued him, then the ice prison exploded, having done nothing to even temporarily extinguish the flames for an instant.

The Rider instead grabbed onto Lin's cable, sending fire up its length and into her armor. The chief screamed as the pain wracked her body before collapsing, the Rider letting the fire dissipate as soon as she was out for the count. This was enough for Korra to take things more seriously.

Activating the Avatar state for a power boost, Korra tried to metalbend the chain against him, but found she couldn't move it, just like his car. So instead, she lashed out with a massive gust of wind and several boulders, strong enough to send the Rider flying and burying him under a fairly large chunk of the street.

For a brief moment, it almost seemed like this might have stopped him, right up until his fist broke through the debris. In no time at all, he had broken through the boulder and was back on his feet, now looking really pissed off. She responded by launching him in the air with Earthbending, then waterbending a hail of ice crystals at him.

The demon was thrown by the force, but quickly regained control by using his chain to latch onto a rooftop, swinging and transferring his momentum before launching himself at her. She quickly air dodged away as his fist cracked the ground she'd been standing on a moment ago.

She launched herself into the air with earthbending and kept in the sky with airbending, hoping to throw her opponent off balance. But unfortunately for her, the Rider had had enough of that: The flaming chain wrapped around her arm and the Rider pulled hard, pulling her into range of his fist. A single hard clotheslined punch was enough to knock Korra out of the fight.

The other metalbenders still standing paused in shock as the Avatar hit the ground, right next to the rest of her team, and their chief of police. Asami ran over to the team, then sighed in relief when she saw they were alright. The sound of an engine starting up drew their attention back to the Rider, who had gotten back in his car after breaking it out of the trap it had been stuck in.

Hastily, they erected a stone wall in an effort to stop him, only for the Charger to bust it down without a scratch. The debris scattered in the direction of the officers, sending them flying to the side as the Ghost Rider drove past them, the noise causing Korra to wake up.

"Are you alright?" Korra couldn't help but give a soft comforting smile at Asami's concerned expression.

"I'm fine." She got up to a sitting position and looked around, Bolin and Mako now stirring as well. "Where is he?" The roar of a car engine answered her question.

She rose to her feet just in time to watch as the strange vehicle drove away in the distance, leaving behind brief flaming tire tracks and several battered and bruised officers. Further in the distance, she could see the yellow and green pillar of light that represented the Spirit Portal, and with a start, realized the Charger was heading in that direction.

* * *

**To the outcome: Korra technically has more power, but the thing is, Ghost Rider is far more durable, so everything she does may slow or inconvenience him, but she can't actually hurt him in the slightest with her bending.**

**Also, in case it wasn't clear, the reason no one can metalbend Robbie's car or chain is because both are infused with hellfire, which is also something that can't exactly be firebent either.**

**We know that sufficiently pure metals can't be manipulated with metalbending (which, incidentally, would probably include most metals created by spacefaring civilizations), so I doubt it can manipulate metal that's mixed with supernatural flame.**

**That said, Robbie and the Rider can clearly control the damage their hellfire inflicts (his bouts with Daisy and capturing James alive is proof of that), so yes, Lin and Korra didn't suffer any permanent damage from his attacks.**

**Anyway, I was thinking of maybe adding a chapter or two after this, or just adding more as a separate story altogether. I'm undecided at the moment, but if I do, here's something that you can expect.**

**EDIT: Now that Spirits and Shields is out, the snippet below can be considered an omake.**

* * *

Suddenly, the ground started shaking, rather violently in fact, and the lights all around them began flickering, some exploding in a shower of sparks. She looked around, and saw two people on a nearby building, one male and one female.

The two of them leapt to the ground, strangely using what appeared to be focused beams of electricity and waves of vibrations respectively, to give themselves a gentle landing. They immediately proved who's side they were on in the next moment.

A wave of vibrations emerged from the woman's hand, sending the cars flying away as the drivers quickly bailed out. The drivers and metalbenders didn't have time to retaliate, as the man fired off streams of electric energy from his hands, shocking them through their armor, and somehow tossing them aside with electricity.

The mech suits emerged and attempted to retaliate, but a stream of vibration energy shattered one into pieces and electricity shorted through the other one. With their opponents out of the picture, the two arrivals ran to their friend's car.

"Wasn't expecting to see you here." Robbie commented as the new arrivals quickly entered his car.

"We could be saying the same thing." The woman replied.

"You know, maybe we can have this conversation later?" The electrokinetic said.

Robbie didn't need to be told twice. Hitting the gas, he drove away, Daisy firing off shockwaves that shattered the barriers the Earthbenders brought up in their path, while Lincoln just knocked out the benders themselves with bolts of electricity.

...

**So yes, Daisy Johnson and Lincoln Campbell would join up with Robbie. If you're wondering how the latter's alive right now, I'd recommend reading my story Losing Control. And really, they'd just be the start.**

**With all that said, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and reviews are always welcome.**


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